The ILCA Book: ILCA Sailing from Start to Finish

The essential guidebook to ILCA sailing.

The single manufacturer one-design (SMOD) Laser, launched just over 50 years ago, has now been renamed the ILCA and moved to multiple licensed builders. To reflect this change, the leading book on Laser sailing since 1979, The Laser Book, has now changed its name to The ILCA Book and moved from a single to multiple authors.
In this latest edition, ILCA guru and multiple champion Jon Emmett has updated Tim Davison’s seminal text to make it completely relevant to today’s ILCA sailors. All the latest control lines, masts and sails are covered for all 3 rigs.
Targeted at the club sailor, The ILCA Book covers the techniques and skills needed to succeed in ILCA sailing, for those starting out through to those striving to win a Club Championship. Whether you are a youngster moving into an ILCA 4 or 6, or a club sailor looking to improve your ILCA 7 results, the expert advice from the authors and contributions from Laser / ILCA gold medallists, world champions and their coaches, will take your ILCA / Laser sailing to the next level.
Beginning with setting up the boat, the book takes you through your early sailing experiences and caring for your ILCA. Developing your skills on all points of sailing, you will then be introduced to race tuning and racing itself.
Over 350 photographs show you exactly how it’s done, and 50 diagrams illustrate key boat parts, the different points of sailing and complex on-the-water scenarios with clarity.
Whatever your background, your current level or the extent of your ambition, this book gives you all the tools you need to get out on the water and improve your ILCA sailing.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED: Setting Up The Boat, Rigging, A Touch Of Theory, Your First Sail, ILCA Care

PART TWO: SKILL DEVELOPMENT: Launching, Beating, Reaching, Running, Tacking, Gybing, Taking A Penalty, Capsizing, Landing, Racing

PART THREE: THE DIFFERENT SAILS & RIGS: A Choice of Rigs, ILCA 7, ILCA 6, ILCA 4

The ILCA Class Association

Tim Davison competed regularly on the International Laser racing circuit in the 1970s and 1980s, and was on the podium for both the Open Worlds and European Championships and won the Masters European and UK National Championships during this time. He has won the British Moth national Championships four times as well as competing successfully in many other classes.

Jon Emmett is a successful Laser Radial sailor, representing the UK internationally for over 15 years. A professional coach and expert dinghy sailor, he is a National, European and World champion, impressively having won the UK National Championships three times! He is also a yacht racing tactician who lectures on tactics and racing, and is the training officer for the UK Laser Association. The British sailor coached Chinese Laser Radial sailing star Xu Lijia to a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.